Professional Standards for Faculty

Resolution Number: 
Assigned to : 
Professional Standards

Whereas the excellence of instructional programs is enhanced by the willingness and ability of faculty to assume responsibility for the quality of their peers, and

Whereas the Commission for Review of the Master Plan has recommended that the Board of Governors strengthen the role of academic senates with respect to the hiring, retention, and evaluation of faculty, and

Whereas the Academic Senate has previously taken strong positions in support of primary responsibility of the faculty for evaluation and selection of all full and part-time faculty,

Resolved that the General Assembly of the Academic Senate adopt the report "Professional Standards for Faculty" as a statement of position on professional standards as they relate to hiring, transfer, and professional development of community college faculty, and

Resolved that the following amendments be incorporated:

Page 1, under "Minimum Standards,": "Notwithstanding the above two requirements, and upon the recommendation of the faculty screening committee in the department(s) and/or discipline(s) involved, an applicant could be granted permission to teach if the college's academic senate, acting through its established procedures, determined that the applicant possessed a reputation such as to qualify him or her as outstanding in the appropriate discipline. The criteria for such a determination, and any conditions or provisions applied to a faculty member appointed as a result of it (i.e., limits on the types and kinds of courses the appointee may teach, availability of tenure, etc) shall be established by the academic senate.

Page 2, number 2: Replace "vocational area" with "discipline where the master's degree is in a specialized, technical, trade, or industrial field" and, in the following sentence, replace "vocational areas" with "such disciplines."

Page 3, number 1: Add to the committee "personnel officer or other appropriate staff." Amend the third sentence to read: "The Professional Standards Committee, working within the guidelines of the Affirmative Action Committee, will set hiring guidelines, including those relating to evaluation of degrees and certificates, and act as a resource to answer questions posed by screening committees at the college. The Committee will also review recommendations forwarded by departments or disciplines for granting or denying tenure and make the final recommendation to grant or deny tenure."

Page 3, number 2: Add as second sentence: "Such committees should achieve gender and ethnic balance and should have a majority who represent the discipline or related discipline of the position for which the individual is being hired."

Page 3, number 4: Add "within limits of contracts and other laws."

Page 3, number 5: Amend to read that the "minimum standard for supervising any teaching area be an earned master's degree."

Page 4, number 3: Replace with the following: "No one hired initially as an administrator may be permitted to earn seniority or regular status ("tenure") as a faculty member while that person is working as an administrator. However, an administrator should be given the right to become a probationary faculty member once the administrative assignment is terminated if the faculty members of one or more department(s) or discipline(s) in the college or district, acting through established collegial procedures approved by the college's academic senate, accept him or her, in writing, at the time of initial hiring, as qualified to be a member of the faculty.

Page 5, under "Professional Development,": "Faculty who transfer (either voluntarily or involuntarily) to new disciplines.."

Page 5, number 1: Replace "procedures" with "criteria."

Page 5, number 2: Add the following and then renumber subsequent items: "The faculty of each academic department or discipline, acting through collegial procedures, must be responsible for making recommendati